Normal Students Of High School Chemistry Teachers And Chemical Scientific Inquiry Research Capacity Development In The Status Quo

"Take scientific inquiry as core" has become an international consensus on the reform of science education. New science curriculum standards for the 21st century were developed by the countries of the world. And "scientific inquiry" as the basic concept of the science curriculum was emphasized. In this international situation, China started a new basic education curriculum reform in May 2001. The curriculum reform emphasized that learners should experience the inquiry process, which means that teachers must possess the necessary capacity to guide students to the real scientific inquiry. However, the quality of teachers has become the bottleneck of curriculum reform, due to the lack of inquiry experience and experience of guide inquiry. Therefore, the scientific inquiry ability of high school chemical teachers and preservice teachers were studied in this research to promote the implementation of inquiry teaching.Effective measurement tool is the essential prerequisite to obtain the true findings. In this study, the researches of Schwab and Dillashaw on the science process skills are the theoretical basis. And a paper and pencil test of integrated science process skills for inservice and preservice chemical teachers as well as postgraduates was developed using definition of science process skills of the AAAS and compulsory education curriculum standards of chemistry at home for reference. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of the questionnaire is 0.77, indicating a good reliability of it. The elements of science process skills were screened again and some elements hard to measure by paper and pencil test were removed to ensure that the questionnaire has good content validity.The integrated science process skills of the high school inservice and preservice chemical teachers as well as the chemical postgraduate students were tested by the questionnaire, and the factors affecting the skills were also analyzed. According to the study, the overall score of integrated science process skills of chemical postgraduates was significantly higher than inservice and preservice chemical teachers. Although the preservice teachers'skills were also higher than inservice teachers, no significance was found between the two samples. For the two sub-scales of asking questions and evaluation, the postgraduates were higher than preservice teachers, and the preservice teachers were higher than inservice teachers, the significant differences at 0.01 levels were found in all of them. For the stating hypotheses sub-scale, the inservice teachers were at a middle level while the preservice teachers were lowest. Furthermore, this sub-scale of postgraduates was significantly higher than inservice and preservice teachers. For the designing investigation sub-scale, inservice teachers and postgraduates were at a considerable level, and both of them were significantly higher than preservice teachers. For the collecting evidence and interpreting data sub-scale, the postgraduates were higher than preservice teachers, and preservice teachers were higher than inservice teachers, this sub-scale of postgraduates was significantly higher than inservice teachers at 0.05 levels. For inservice teachers, male have a generally higher integrated science process skills than female. Their science process skills gradually improved by the years of teaching experience expect these teachers with 6-10 years of teaching experience. The effects of professional title and educational background were same, teachers with a higher professional title or educational background had a higher integrated science process skills, but no significant differences were found among them. The integrated science process skills of teachers in rural area performed better than teachers in county area, and the teachers in county area were better than teachers in capital city. When the sub-scales of science process skills were analyzed, the designing investigation sub-scale of teachers in capital city was significant lower than teachers in rural area, while the evaluation sub-scale of teachers in capital city was significant higher than teachers in rural area. For the preservice teachers, the gender had certain influence on their integrated science process skills development, and boys slightly higher than girls on the score of the integrated science process skills. Preservice teachers with research experience had significantly higher scores on the integrated science process skills than other preservice teachers, which indicated that research activities were conducive to developing and improving of the integrated science process skills for preservice teachers. Contrary to the conclusion with inservice and preservice chemical teachers, the integrated science process skills of male postgraduates are lower than female postgraduates. And significant differences were found between the two groups in the sub-scales of asking questions and collecting evidence and interpreting data. The postgraduates'major has little effect on the development of their integrated science process skills. And with the grade increased, the integrated science process skills of postgraduates developed upward gradually. Expect the sub-scale of stating hypotheses, the postgraduates in grade three scored significant higher than other two grades in total scores and other sub-scales.